Elgar Parishad Case: Bombay High Court Rejects Default Bail To Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawade & Rona Wilson

A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Shyam Chandak pronounced the order in their chamber. Bail was also denied to Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawade and researcher Rona Wilson.

The bench had closed the matter for orders in May 2024.

Confirming the development Advocate R Sathyanarayanan Iyer appearing for Gadling, said, "The bench has rejected the application seeking default bail." He said that the court only read out the operative part as the order is voluminous.

Notably, Gadling was earlier refused default bail in December 2021, when the HC bench led by Justice Sambhaji Shinde had granted default bail to co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj and denied bail to 8 others including Gadling. In the instant proceedings, Gadling had challenged a June 28, 2022 order of a special court designated to hear cases under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, which turned down his default bail plea.

In his application, Gadling highlighted the fact that the police sought more time from the special court in Pune to file its chargesheet. The practising advocate in Nagpur, further pointed out in his plea that the application seeking additional time to file chargesheet was filed in September 2018 and the NIA got 90 more days for the same.

The first chargesheet, the plea stated, was filed in November 2018, in breach of the 90 days period and an additional chargesheet was filed in February 2019.

The extension of time given to file chargesheet was in breach of the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The prosecution led by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Devang Vyas opposed the bail plea, arguing that most of the grounds urged in the instant plea were considered and dismissed by the division bench of Justice Shinde, who denied bail to Gadling in December 2021.

Click Here To Read/Download Judgment